Category: Inter-Korean Issues

I wonder what the U.S. government’s definition of a “certain limit” is compared to the Moon administration’s?:

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said her country and the United States determined that North Korea’s short-range missile launches in May did not “deserve” suspending talks with the regime.
Speaking Friday at a security forum in Bratislava, Slovakia, Kang said South Korea and the U.S. analyzed the launches in early May and “decided to take a cool headed approach about this.”
“We said this doesn’t deserve breaking the momentum for dialogue,” she told the forum in English, according to an AP transcript. “But if it reaches, the provocation reaches a certain limit and that cannot be tolerated, clearly it goes back to more pressure.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

US: “It can only range Seoul, so what do we care?”
SK: “Missiles? What missiles? In the interest of inter-Korean comity, we prefer to see them as ‘projectiles for peace’ instead.” https://t.co/GY4dKpFeNy

— 🇰🇷Edward Oh🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) May 22, 2019

Here is a $8 million more dollars that the Kim regime does not have to spend on its people:

South Korea decided Friday to donate US$8 million to international agencies for aid projects in North Korea and allow a group of businesspeople to visit a shuttered joint industrial complex in the communist nation.
The decisions came as Seoul has been trying to keep the peace process with the North alive despite the North’s firing of missiles and projectiles earlier this month. Seoul is also formulating plans to send food aid to the impoverished North.
“The government decided to approve the businesspeople’s trip to North Korea as part of efforts to protect their property rights,” the unification ministry said in a press release. “We will make necessary efforts to make their trip to the Kaesong industrial complex go smoothly without any problem.”
“We also plan to provide $8 million through international agencies such as the WFP and UNICEF for projects to support the nutrition of children and pregnant women and their health,” it added, referring to the World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Seoul is saying they are sending the food aid to keep the peace process alive. So this is basically extortion money then to the Kim regime?

Remember how the Moon administration said they would get public opinion before agreeing to food aid to North Korea? Well as expected public opinion to them is getting their food aid plan agreed to by fellow leftist groups:

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul discussed the issue of providing food aid to North Korea with civic groups here, Tuesday, as part of a first step in reviewing the project.

Seventeen people from three organizations, including the Korea Conference of Religions for Peace, participated in the discussion.

The three groups are favorable toward the government providing humanitarian aid to the North. In a joint statement, they said South Korea should never ignore the devastating food shortage there despite ongoing military and political tension between the two Koreas.

“As of now, the unification ministry is focusing on receiving opinions. We will decide on the project’s timing, method and scale afterwards,” a ministry official said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but some how I doubt anyone from these groups asked the Unification Minister how come the Kim regime cannot purchase food for their people, but can buy $640 million of luxury goods from China?

This editorial in the North Korean state controlled newspaper is clearly intended to send a message to the Moon administration to violate international sanctions:

Pyongyang’s state media on Sunday condemned the South for citing humanitarian reasons for its plans to provide food aid to the North, saying Seoul is “playing with empty words” rather than attempting to tackle “fundamental issues” in their relationship. 

The editorial from Arirang Meari – a state-run outlet in Pyongyang that mainly covers inter-Korean issues – criticized the South for being “entangled with an external environment” and putting off the implementation of their joint declarations from earlier summits. Calling the South’s references to humanitarianism “empty words” and “showing off,” the piece went on say that making a “big deal out of a few counts of humanitarian cooperation projects” was an “insult to public opinion and an act lacking respect and ethics.

“[The South] must not make a mockery out of the historic inter-Korean joint declaration with a trivial counts of goods trading or human exchanges,” the essay continued. “If [South Korea] is truly interested in improving inter-Korean relations as a primary party to national issues, it must boldly divorce itself from a policy of foreign dependence and fulfill its duty to the people by actively sticking by the inter-Korean declarations.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime is trying to push the Moon administration to unilaterally restart joint projects such as the Kaesong Industrial Park that would violate international sanctions.

Does anyone think that the Kim regime takes anything from the ROK government seriously right now?

The South Korean Defense Ministry has urged North Korea to stop heightening military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

In the wake of North Korea’s short-range missile test and artillery exercises this past Saturday, ministry spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo addressed the situation without specifically describing the military move as a missile launch.

[Sound bite: Defense Ministry Spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo (Korean)] 
“North Korea’s launch of multiple projectiles partially goes against the purpose of the (inter-Korean) military agreement and we are very concerned. We urge North Korea to cease actions that heighten military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

I wonder what the current ROK government would consider to be provocative from Pyongyang?:

 South Korea’s spy agency said Monday it does not see North Korea’s firing of short-range projectiles last week as provocative as they appear to have been “ground-to-ground” weapons.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) delivered an initial analysis of the North’s projectiles fired into the sea off its east coast on Saturday in a briefing to Lee Hye-hoon, a representative of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party, at the National Assembly. 
The NIS didn’t specify the type of the ground-to-ground projectiles, saying the analysis is still underway, according to Rep. Lee.
The spy agency said North Korea’s latest move suggests that it will not walk away from the negotiating table, the lawmaker told reporters following the briefing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the test of the MLRS I think was clearly a measured provocation. They sent a message that Seoul and the major US bases at Camp Humphreys and Osan Airbase can be targeted with their MLRS. This message is intended to remind US negotiators of the threat they pose and thus the need to be taken seriously.

They are starting small and as their impatience increases expect them to increase the range of the weapon system they test. Next up it makes since they would test one of their short range SCUD missile systems.

A #SouthKorean soldier lost his foot to mine. Senior military, trying to please #MoonJaein administration, created a "Foot for Peace" monument. And have the soldier there to celebrate the unveiling. Disgraceful, to say the least.https://t.co/wcVmlBNT3b

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) April 24, 2019

So much for the hotline for the two leaders to contact each other, instead President Moon needs a one-on-one meeting with Kim Jong-un:

President Moon Jae-in could deliver a message from U.S. President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un if a new inter-Korean summit takes place, a presidential official said Sunday.
CNN reported earlier, citing unidentified sources, that Moon has a message from Trump to relay to the North’s leader. Moon met with Trump at the White House earlier this month to discuss ways to get the stalled denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang moving again. 
“If an inter-Korean summit takes place, a related message could be delivered” to the North’s leader, the presidential official told reporters, when asked to comment on the CNN report. The official did not elaborate on the content of the message.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Moon should be careful that he does not come off as looking too desperate for the photo op summit with Kim Jong-un.

The Moon Jae-in administration is again trying to pull a fast one to avoid North Korean sanctions:

The Korea Customs Service (KCS, 관세청) of South Korea has begun to consider measures to approve a ‘Made in [South] Korea’ label, not just for products made in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, but also for goods made all over North Korea.  There is still a difference of opinions between the government of South Korea and the U.S. Nevertheless, the South Korean government seems to continue to try to evade economic sanctions against North Korea.

In the last summit between the U.S. and South Korea [on April 10, 2019], President Trump made clear that he is against easing the economic sanctions for resuming the Gaeseong industrial complex and Geumgang Mountain tourism.

President Trump said on April 11, “When we’re at the right time, I’d have great support; this isn’t the right time [to soften the sanctions].”

In contrast to the U.S. government’s position, the Korea Customs Service in March prepared the “Comprehensive Aid Roadmap,” which approves North Korean-made products as made in South Korea, and began an internal review.  They want products made in all regions of North Korea to be labeled as “Made in Korea.” [Numerous products made in South Korea are labeled “Made in Korea” and most consumers would assume the goods are made in South Korea, not North Korea.]

East Asia Research Center

You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration even wants to allow the Kim regime to export “Made in Korea” items directly from North Korea under the ROK’s FTA agreement. This is absurd I cannot imagine that the Trump administration is going to fall for this scheme.